JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Subscribe to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Happy Friday night to you. This is the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio.

This is when I get started. Every single weeknight, 10 p.m. Eastern Time, 7 p.m. Pacific. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to super producer and host, Dave Shepherd.

He is coming to you live from New York City. A busy night. A busy day. A busy weekend in front of us and I got you covered.

So whether you're listening on the free Odyssey app, whether you're tuned in on your local affiliate, whether you're locked in on Sirius XM channel 158, or on a smart speaker, thank you very much. NBA playoff basketball. It's going on all over the damn place. Right now, the New York Knicks lead the Cleveland Cavaliers 49 to 36. 51 to 36. It's in the third quarter. Cleveland Cavaliers, I mean, I don't, are they scared? Darius Garland is having a crap game. I know heading into halftime, this man had three points on one of 12 shooting.

That ain't going to do the job. And unless the Cavs have some type of run in them, they got a whole half of basketball here. I mean, the New York Knicks, man, they could they could take the lead in this series at home in Madison Square Garden. I just left the basketball game. The Atlanta Hawks just held on to beat the Boston Celtics. We'll talk about that game. There's another basketball game going on tonight as well.

You'd have to go out west, okay? Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, they're getting it on. Matter of fact, they're already underway.

The Timberwolves lead in the first 21 to 17. So we'll keep you up to date on all the basketball going on this evening. We got a two-time heavyweight champion of the world who's going to join us later on in the show. We're going to have a conversation with Mr. George Foreman, big George Foreman. The film, the movie comes out next Friday, April 28th. And I want to ask George Foreman, why you got a movie made of you?

Why now? What are you trying to have people understand? I think we know your story. And so those are some of the questions I'm going to ask George Foreman. And I also want to know what he thinks about Gervonta Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia going at it tomorrow night in Las Vegas.

So George Foreman coming up later on in the show. We'll talk some basketball. Man, there was some big NFL news today as five, count them, five NFL players have been suspended due to betting. I mean, these dudes are betting on games. They're betting on college. They're betting and doing, you know, mobile apps on their phone in the facility. And I will detail to you what took place and what happened.

Some of these guys no longer have jobs. Nick Nurse has been fired as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors and the world continues on. If you want to talk to me here on CBS Sports Radio, it's very simple. It's eight five five two one two for CBS.

That's eight five five two one two for CBS. You can find me online. I am everywhere.

That is at J.R. Sportbrief Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Shep, how are you this evening? Good.

I'm doing well. Thank you for asking. I'm really excited for you to interview one of the all time great heavyweight champions.

He does not get talked about enough for the likes of Ali and Frazier. So good for you for having him. I am really looking forward to that interview. Well, thank you, George. George Foreman is a good man. I'll make sure I ask him not to hit you. OK, I appreciate that. Thank you.

You're very welcome. I think even in his 70s, if he hit you, it probably probably be lights out. No comment. George Foreman is a gentle giant. We'll see. As far as I know, he is. We'll see.

Anyway, not too gentle. And hey, a big shout outs to my new friends. I just met them at at State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks. A big shout outs to Derek and Luke. They said, hey, make sure you tell everybody you saw us. Yeah, I met you guys, Derek and Luke. Y'all are good dudes. It was great hanging out with you all. I hope to see you sooner than later.

Feel free to hit me up. J.R. Sportbrief everywhere. But as I just mentioned, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Celtics tonight to hold on, to at least force a game five. And so Boston now leads the series two to one. This game just ended a few minutes ago before we went on air. I left right at the beginning of the fourth quarter so I could get to the studio. And when I left, the Hawks were leading one hundred to ninety three. And then I blinked. And by the time I got in my car, the Celtics went on like a nine nothing run.

And I'm like, here we go. Typical Atlanta Hawks. But Trae Young, De'Jaunte Murray, they went out there and tonight they combined for fifty seven points. They got busy in that fourth quarter to keep the Celtics at bay and they walked away with the victory. I told you about Trae Young. He had thirty two points midway through the fourth quarter. He was like, man, I can get to the basket.

So that's what I'm going to do. Six forty five to go in the game. Hawks up by five. Trae dribbling, driving all the way through.

Left hander is good. And the Celtics need a time out. Trae Young is back, folks. Trae Young is back. Six thirty nine to go in the game.

Time out. Hawks one thirteen. Celtics one oh six. Hey, shout outs to my main man, Steve Holman.

Shout outs to my main man, Mike Conte over here with the Hawks radio call. Trae Young kept it busy. He didn't just go towards the basket with layups. Trae Young, you know, every now and then he likes to take these deep ass threes like this. Now, Trae has it outside with forty eight seconds to go. Trae drives.

Trae, hesitation floater is good. Trae Young just knocked it down. And the Celtics need a time out with forty five seconds to go.

Trae Young has become Trae Young tonight again. And the Hawks lead by five. Forty five point four to go in the game.

Actually heard that call in my car and I was just like, here we go. It's like, don't anoint the Hawks too soon. It's still time for them to blow it.

But they did it. And here's the final call, courtesy of my folks at ninety two nine the game. Twelve seconds to go. This crowd is on their feet. Eighteen thousand five hundred and thirty six cheering the Atlanta Hawks.

They're going to make this a series, folks. Four seconds to go. Three seconds. Two.

One. And the horn sounds. And that's it. And the Hawks have won game three here at home. And that sums up a big game four Sunday night at seven.

Also here at State Farm Arena. So we know now there will be a game five of this series coming up on Tuesday night in Boston. Yep, there'll be a game five. There will be a game four.

Definitely. It won't be a close out. You just heard him Sunday night.

I'm going to go ahead and check that game out. I'll see Trae Young again. Trae Young.

He spoke with Cassidy Hubbard after the game on ESPN. And this is what he had to say post victory. Trae, you told me that no one puts more pressure on yourself to perform on this stage than you. What were you telling yourself down the stretch as you continue to make impact plays for the win? I didn't need to make the right play. I mean, we were all the whole team was making plays all night.

It was up to me to go make the right one. It's not always a score. Sometimes I get everybody else involved. So I just try to make the right play.

And tonight I did that. This is the first playoff win for you and DeJounte as a duo. How big is this for your team as a whole to build off of?

It's very big. I mean, this is like you said, our first playoff experience together. But this is the first win of hopefully many more to come. But we're going to keep working.

And that's all we can do. My friend Big Tigger in the background with his big mouth making all that noise. I could barely hear Trey Young.

Thank you, Tigger. Anyway, Trey Young, 32 points. DeJounte Murray, 25. Sadiq Bey Bogdanovich, they had 15 points apiece off of the bench. Tatum had 29. Marcus Smart had 24. Jalen Brown had an off night, 15 points. And Grant Williams, he actually saw the light of day. 14 points, he knocked down four threes.

And then Malcolm Brogdon, your reigning sixth man of the year, he had 17 points. Now, I hate to be a Debbie Downer here. Shep, am I going to get emails from women named Debbie about negative connotations surrounding their names?

I don't think so. I think people know you don't mean it and you're saying it tongue in cheek. Okay. I remember one day I said Debbie Downer and I feel like Debbie called and said, hey, you're being disrespectful of Debbie's. Better than negative Nancy.

Oh, well don't. You're going to have Debbie's and Nancy's calling us, man. Anyway, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer. I don't want to be a negative Nancy, but I'll just be a realistic JR. The Hawks might have just picked up their only victory.

I'm sorry. If they pick up another victory on Sunday, good. Great for them. Just more basketball for me.

I'm fine with it. But the Boston Celtics are going to handle this series. There were enough instances where the Hawks held on. Thank God they didn't let the Celtics go out there and score like 140 points. And so the Atlanta Hawks, they walk away with a victory and all of my friends are happy. And also tonight, it was real interesting. Shep, I was I was at the game. And I had to go.

Damn. There's a lot of Al Horford fans right next to me, like 15 of them. Why is that, JR?

I don't know. I'm like, why is everybody likes Al Horford that much? I'm like, there's a 42 here. There's a 42 there. There's a lady with a 42. There's a baby with a 42.

A little girl had a bedazzled 42 jersey. And I put one and one together and I said, oh, this is all Al Horford's family. And they showed up to watch him lose. OK, so that's that's actually surprising because you're very well aware of the fact that he was probably the best player on the Hawks for the better end of a decade, even better than Paul Millsap. So I'm surprised there with my friend Paul now. Well, JR, in all seriousness, when you talk about the careers of both prospective players, Paul Millsap has been an amazing NBA player, of course.

But who has lasted the test of time? Oh, well, that's I mean, yeah, Paul is retired. Right.

Exactly. Give Paul a break. And Big Al's still going strong.

Conda. He's playing. He's playing with these dudes. He's good for good for him.

He's he's not. But he's not just like, you know, this this guy is not a role player. I mean, he's a lethal third or fourth option for that team. And he ain't no third or fourth option.

So Tatum Brown. And on some nights, Horford's the third option. Some nights, sometimes. Yeah. I pay close attention to Al Horford. Some nights.

Congratulations to his family. One of his you know, I don't know. Here I am.

Here I am getting myself in trouble. There was somebody I don't know who it was. He had dress clothes on shot, right? Talking about button up shirt, button up pants, you know, shoes. He had a he had a 42 jersey on. Over his dress shirt. It was tucked into the jersey was tucked into his pants over his dress shirt. I was just a little bewildered that that caught my attention to go.

Who are all these people and why are they wearing 42? But Al Horford is a great guy and good for him. I don't know if his family will be back, but there will be a game for without a doubt on Sunday. It will or won't be a closeout game in the world. We'll continue on. So congratulations to the Hawks beating the Celtics tonight.

130 to 122. The New York Knicks still maintaining a lead over Cleveland 62 to 53. And what we're going to do now that we've gotten warmed up and we just got started. We're going to take a break.

And when we come back. This is ridiculous, folks. There are more injuries in the NBA.

I kid you not. Two superstar players. One NBA Finals MVP.

One league soon to be league MVP. They're dealing with the same injury and they will not be playing basketball tomorrow. I'm going to tell you who they are on the other side of the break. And then we had a coach of the year get the boot today.

His name, Nick Nurse. We're going to talk about these injuries. Talk about the Raptors. We're going to get into these NFL players who want to bet at work. We're going to talk about the Knicks, the Cavs, the Nuggets, the Timberwolves. George Foreman is going to join us later on in the show.

We're even going to talk about Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia. We got a lot to do. Just getting warmed up. Just getting started. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show. Don't move.

Happy Friday, folks. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. JR wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. It's one of my favorite beats right here.

Shout-outs to Houston, everybody on the loop. Dirty, dirty. You might consider this to be dirty.

Or maybe you don't. Nick Nurse was given the boot today by the Toronto Raptors with one year left on his deal. Also, you might consider this to be dirty as well. But this is just business as usual in the NBA. Prepare yourselves, folks. I'm about to run you through a list. A list of injuries that have taken place so far here in the postseason by stars.

Got to take a breath. Here we go. Ja Morant missed Game 2 between the Lakers and Grizzlies because of his hand. This is the big news from today. Kawhi Leonard, he missed Game 3 because of a sprained right knee. And he is also out for Game 4 tomorrow between the Suns and the Clippers.

And Phoenix currently leads 2-1. Joel Embiid, he is also out tomorrow, Game 4, with a sprained right knee, just like Kawhi Leonard. And so I guess somebody's sitting around with a basketball voodoo doll of Kawhi and Joel Embiid.

And they're just poking at their knees. Kawhi Leonard has been cooked since that quad injury with the San Antonio Spurs. It's like he showed up, won the Raptors a championship, and then he went to the Clippers. And I feel like I see him three games at a time.

And then he's gone for three months at a time. And Joel Embiid, we saw what happened last night. Nicholas Claxton dunks, steps over him. Joel Embiid goes to kick him.

Doesn't get kicked out of the game. James Harden did. Joel Embiid took a couple of falls yesterday, stayed in the game.

But an MRI revealed he has a sprained knee. Joel Embiid will not be in action tomorrow. And the 76ers are going to take on the Nets. If James Harden wants to show up and show out with Maxey, this is your time, James Harden, to show everybody that you are not washed.

And the Brooklyn Nets, if they want to win a game tomorrow, or win a game at all in the series, tomorrow might be the best day. And speaking of Joel Embiid, he didn't get suspended. I know there were some people who thought a suspension was coming based on kicking Nick Claxton.

It did not happen. I guess the NBA feels the same way Joel Embiid did. Because last night, when Embiid was asked about that kick to Nick Claxton, Joel Embiid just, he forgot.

With Claxton early in the game, were you worried you were going to get thrown out of the game at that point? I don't know. I don't remember. Like I said, we up 3-0. We move on. It takes me a lot to process a game after that type of fight.

So I got to go watch the tape, see what we can do better, what I can do better. And I'm just happy we got the win. He doesn't remember anything. He wasn't there. Joel Embiid was having an out-of-body experience, and he has no recollection of kicking Nick Claxton. Later on in that interview, or press conference, Joel Embiid was asked about Nick Claxton getting kicked out of the game. And Joel Embiid said, oh yeah, I remember that. Nice selective memory by the always funny Joel Embiid, except for when he's kicking guys in between the legs. The Brooklyn Nets head coach, Joc Vaughn, he remembered, and he wasn't happy with the fact that Joel Embiid never left the game. I don't think I've ever seen that in my career before, Alex. For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at or towards, and for him to continue to play.

I've never seen that before. In a game, and a guy continues to be able to play. Well now he doesn't have to worry about it. Because Joel Embiid is not going to be, well he'll be watching the game, he won't be participating. Because of his sprained right knee. And I would assume, it has been assumed, it has been written, that he's expected to be back at some point next week.

As if the series goes that far. Joel Embiid out with a sprained right knee. Kawhi Leonard out with a sprained right knee.

Phoenix Suns are likely to take a 3-1 series lead tomorrow afternoon over the Clippers. And Kawhi Leonard might as well be making vacation plans right now. And speaking of Kawhi Leonard, I know this is a big fight weekend in Vegas. I don't remember what the fight was.

As a matter of fact, I do. It was Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. I am standing just off the side in the lobby. I don't remember who I was with. There was a lot of people.

It was the Friday before the fight. And who walks into this gigantic lobby of the MGM? Nobody but Kawhi Leonard. This man walked into the lobby.

Had just a guy with him, a regular looking guy and a woman. And they just walked into the lobby and nobody bothered Kawhi Leonard. It's like there wasn't a care in the world for Kawhi and nobody cared that he was there. Hey, Shep, I'm starting to wonder if Kawhi Leonard is like a real person.

Is he a robot? Like, what's the deal with this dude? Man, you know, he talked his way out of San Antonio and then it seemed like he found a home in Toronto.

You got the sense that he loved it there. He was left alone and then he bolts to go to LA and rings his buddy Paul George with him. It's going to be interesting how he's remembered, JR. Because if you look at what Kawhi Leonard does when he's on the court, is there anybody you trust more in a big game that has played in this generation? I mean, I guess if he's playing, right? Right. And that's a huge if. But JR, in all seriousness, when Kawhi Leonard is on, and he certainly looked on for the first two games of this series, he single-handedly outplayed Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, I would say, by himself in Game 1.

He did. I just, you talk about the future legacy of Kawhi. He's going to be 32 years old this summer. And in his prime, even before he reached his prime, or maybe that was his prime, between the San Antonio Spurs, the end of Tim Duncan's time, and then picking up that championship in 2019, that's Kawhi Leonard right there. I don't think I'm going off on a limb. I don't think I'm stretching this out. We've seen the best of Kawhi Leonard.

I really do. Like, he ain't going to get any younger here. It's not like the leg injuries are going to subside. How many knee injuries? Every injury I feel like with Kawhi has to do with his lower extremities.

Typically his knees, his thighs, he's done. He doesn't play. And I'm supposed to think that he's going to improve over the next bunch of years?

I'm looking at the numbers right now. Well, J.R., look at what he did. And people forget this. He was out for a long time. But I don't know if there was a better player. And I include Anthony Davis in that conversation. It's funny that I bring him up, speaking of availability. But if you look at what Kawhi Leonard did in the second half of the season, specifically the month of April, I mean, he was giving you 30 points per game, 10 rebounds per game. Seven is, I think, six or seven is this per game? Doesn't matter if he doesn't play. I hear all that. And so, J.R., my question for you would be, when you look at this generation, is there a better player when Kawhi plays than him? I don't know.

What does this generation mean? Steph, LeBron, KD, Giannis, Joel, Nicola. Yeah, nah, I'd take other guys before him because he doesn't play.

It'd be a different conversation. Oh, when he plays, it's tough to make that conclusion when you just walk out onto the court and I assume, yeah, you're injury-prone, but you're more arrested than everybody. And all of these dudes have gone through injuries here or there. Steph Curry has missed time. LeBron has missed time. Giannis Atetokounmpo, throughout the course of his career, he's played a lot of games, but he's no iron man.

He's going to miss 10 to 15 a game. We haven't seen Kawhi Leonard play anything close to a full season since 2017, the year before he got hurt with San Antonio. He played 60 games in Toronto and then won a championship with them.

It's not like he even pushed it close to 70. There's 60 games, one year in Toronto, and a title. First season with the Clippers, 57 games, okay?

Coming out of, well, that's moving into the pandemic. They should have won that series, JR, against the Nuggets. They should have been playing the Lakers in the bubble in the conference finals, but they completely blew games five, six, and seven. And who knows, Kawhi would have been the first guy to ever make three NBA championships with three different teams.

Someone was very depressed about being in the bubble, and that was Paul George, brick and everything. But Kawhi Leonard continued on, and last year he only played 52 games. This season, Kawhi only played another 52 games. What's the over or under on how many games Kawhi plays next year? Dare I say 60?

Am I pushing it to think that he's going to play 60? It's just a shame, and that's his career in a nutshell. If I want to compare it to anyone, I might as well push it towards Terrell Davis from the Denver Broncos. Here you have John Elway, who spent all these years for the better part of a decade, not able to get the job done.

You have Terrell Davis who comes in, is just like shot out of a cannon, helps him go out there and win two Super Bowls, wins an MVP in the process. And now, on the way out the door, his knees are cooked, but he's a Hall of Famer. We know Kawhi Leonard, his status in the NBA is pretty much set.

He's on the top 75 list. He's one of the best two-way players that the league has ever seen. We just haven't seen him in an elongated stretch since he became the man. He lit it up for San Antonio in the playoffs, he lit it up for Toronto in the playoffs, and then he said, y'all got the best out of me, and now I'm going to stay my ass at home.

And I can't imagine moving forward, getting older, unless he has a whole lot of gas left. Gas may not mean too much when your joints are cooked, but it's just a real damn shame what has taken place here with Kawhi. And who knows if we've seen the last of him in the playoffs this year. Sprained right knee, missed Game 3, out Game 4 tomorrow. Joel Embiid won't be playing tomorrow either, and injuries are just part of the game. The Grizzlies and Lakers, they play tomorrow night late. We know Ja Morant missed Game 2 with that hand injury. We know the Bucks and Heat, they play tomorrow as well. Giannis was out and questionable tomorrow with his back injury. Tolly Hero is done unless the Heat go to the finals. We know that ain't happening. And so injuries are just the name of the game. This just sucks, it really does. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

It's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. We're going to take a break when we come back. Speaking of Toronto, I told you Nick Nurse is gone.

The Raptors had no problem showing him the door with one year left on his contract. And so what do the Raptors do with Nick Nurse gone? I think there's a name that they might entertain.

Hide your wives. This guy may come coach the team. I'll tell you who on the other side of the break. This is the JR Sportbrief Show. You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. I'm putting a venue in Colorado Springs so I'm up all night doing 20 hour days and I listen to you. You have really become a major part of what I do because you just keep it real. Call in now at 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

It's the JR Sportbrief Show on CBS Sports Radio. Let's talk about keeping it real. I'm just going to put it this way. It is a foregone conclusion that the New York Knicks are going to go up 2-1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight in Madison Square Garden. There's about five minutes left in the game and the New York Knicks lead 88 to 66. I mean you even have Josh Hart out here putting down one-handed put back dunks and we know he's been dealing with a strewed up ankle. And the New York Knicks are going to walk away with this one.

John McEnroe, tennis player, former tennis player, now announcer, provocateur in the stands losing his mind. A fat Joe clapping in approval as to what the New York Knicks are currently doing. And yes, New York Knicks are going to win this game. They're going to go up in the series 2-1. About four and a half minutes left in this one. The Knicks are just pouring it on right now. So I know what that means. There will be New Yorkers outside of Madison Square Garden and they will be losing their minds like they've never won anything before.

Which in most of their cases happens to be true. Speaking of actually winning something, anything, before we went to break we talked about Kawhi Leonard. Won a championship 2019 with the Raptors.

Showed up, won a title, left, collects a lot of money, is injured and hurt. Steve Ballmer, surprised he hasn't found some magic elixir to put Kawhi Leonard out on the basketball court. And life will go on for Kawhi Leonard as it will and continues for the Clippers. Russell Westbrook looking forward to tomorrow's game.

I'm sure he'll have a triple-double. But the man that Kawhi Leonard left behind was Nick Nurse. Nick Nurse was the head coach of that championship team that won up in Toronto. It was his first season in 2019 because they gave Dwayne Casey the boot.

Congratulations Dwayne Casey. Looks like he's done coaching. Coached for the Detroit Pistons and now he's in their front office. Dwayne Casey won coach of the year and they fired him. Then they moved Nick Nurse down the row and said hey now you're the head coach. And he won a championship that first year. The year after Kawhi left Nick Nurse won his own coach of the year award. He's been there for five total seasons.

But the time's up. The man who runs the show Messiah Jury feels that they need a new voice. That they need to take advantage of the talent that they have there and actually develop them. Whether it is a Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam at this point. Yeah he's been an all-star but he is what he is.

And so somebody has to take the fall right? Somebody's Nick Nurse. He didn't just become the coach or didn't just join the organization in 2019. Nick Nurse he was an assistant with the Raptors starting in 2013. Nick Nurse was a coach in the G League.

He has paid his dues. And now Nick Nurse after a disappointing season for the Toronto Raptors he's gone. And it seemed like weeks ago that the writing would be on the wall.

They went 500. Nick Nurse after they were basically booted from even participating here in the post season. The real post season. Nick Nurse was just like man I ain't thinking about my job future.

We'll get there when we get there. The speculation of whether I was going to be back or not that started I have no idea where that comes from right? Or what I was supposed to do about that right? And what I thought was I needed to try to get the team or any of the players or anybody focused back on the job at hand right?

And try to not have to answer that question every game. You know it started coming one after another after another. And I was trying to put it to bed and so we could focus on the season. Again it's part of it right? I mean I think it's part of it.

There's lots of teams that go through that and got a handle of the way you best see fit and that's what I tried to do. You kind of opened the door to all the questions. I did or you guys did? On Friday in Philadelphia when you brought it up like that it opened the door to a lot of the stuff. I'm just wondering do you regret that?

Not at all. I think the door got opened weeks before right? Nick Nurse referring to a press conference where he pretty much opened up Pandora's box. And he openly questioned his own future and said at the end of the year you know we'll take a look and evaluate and then he got mad when it became a story. Well it didn't matter. The story is true.

It's reality. He is out as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors. And if you are to believe some of the rumors that have been passed around and shared there's a legitimate chance and an opportunity that Ime Udonka becomes the next head coach of the Toronto Raptors.

Yes the same Ime Udonka who got his first job last year as a head coach with the Boston Celtics and he ended up taking them to the finals. He ended up helping them turn their season around. And then right before the season started we found out that he had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. And they had no choice but to give him the boot. And they had him on the sidelines and they wouldn't let him go anywhere. And then at one point in time it looked like he was going to replace Steve Nash as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. I know that seems like a year ago or a million years ago.

And it didn't happen because I believe that Ime Udonka was still hot at that time. How are you going to bring him in? What are the other women in the organization? What are the women in general in the organization going to think about him?

You're going to be able to bring your wife around the guy. I mean I guess these are legitimate questions maybe some of them when it comes down to Ime Udonka. But people get second chances. Unless you're I guess I don't know Colin Kaepernick.

But people for the most part they get second chances. As long as you're not bothering his partner or somebody else Ime Udonka he's going to coach in the NBA. Tom fixes a lot of these things. What does anybody in Toronto care? And messiah with jury if you can't tell he has no problem getting rid of anybody why would he have an issue bringing in Ime Udonka? I don't think there's a problem here. But I'll tell you this much. I don't think Nick Nurse was the problem. Maybe he was one of them. But who the hell is scaring you on the Raptors?

Who am I supposed to be afraid of and intimidated by? Who's putting them over the edge? Kawhi Leonard left and there was nothing. Pascal Siakam what did he step up and do? Nothing. Scotty Barnes I mean I haven't seen enough development out of him.

Fred Van Vliet he's getting money and he's thinking about getting money maybe potentially elsewhere. The Raptors are exactly what their record says they are. Average. Mediocre. 41 and 41.

Stuck somewhere right in the middle. And so yeah sure the Raptors can bring in a new coach. They can elevate another coach over the coaching staff. Nick Nurse and now people are saying Nick Nurse might go down to Houston to coach the Rockets. We shall see. Maybe Nick Nurse just wants to take a year off and then come back.

I don't know. But the Raptors suck. I could coach the team right now. Hey Shep you want to coach the Raptors? I wouldn't mind. Can I be your associate head coach? No I don't want to do it.

You just do it completely. Well I mean if I end up being the best coach in franchise history I'll just get fired as well. So why would I want to aim for success there? You might.

You might. Yeah they got two coaches of the year in the span of what is that? Three years?

Four years? It's ridiculous. And they just boot them.

You can't but you know here's the thing. It's always easy to get rid of the coach. You can't boot the players but it's easier just to dump the coach. I mean even here in Atlanta. Trae Young and I say Trae Young my apologies. But yeah in the Trae Young era they've gone through Lloyd Pierce, Nate McMillan, they just brought in Quinn Snyder. We know Quinn Snyder just had to finish dealing with everything out in Utah between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and now none of the three of them are on the Utah Jazz.

Rudy Gobert is playing for Minnesota right now this minute. Donovan Mitchell is in New York City right now losing to the New York Knicks and Quinn Snyder is probably having himself a steak dinner and a glass of wine after beating the Boston Celtics. And even Quinn Snyder for all of his success. Man that was kind of the push button for everything to change in Utah. And now Quinn Snyder is here in Atlanta.

It's just crazy how much movement we get in the NBA. As a matter of fact speaking of Quinn Snyder after the Hawks won their basketball game tonight over the Boston Celtics to I don't know at least pick up a victory to look or appear respectable. Quinn Snyder spoke to the media and he said yeah the third quarter. It was big time for us. You know I thought Trey and DJ from a leadership standpoint, really the beginning of the third quarter I thought was a crucial time for us when we came out of time out. And those two guys, you know, over the course of the game I think, not just with, you know, the other guys in the team but with one another.

You know connecting and pushing each other. Our bench was really good. We've been getting contributions from a lot of different guys and I think that a lot of that had to do with our fans. Yeah fans. Hawks won 130 to 122. I give the place, I give the fans some credit tonight at State Farm Arena.

Earlier start than typically would by about 30 minutes. It appeared the fans were going to be late filing in, and they were, but the place was was packed, it was jumping. Kudos to the Hawks fans who sometimes get a bad rap for participating in the arena.

Today it was, they were off the chain. Congratulations to the Hawks and oh my god this speaking of someone you never see play. At least he's still around. Derrick Rose is off of the bench for the New York Knicks. Derrick Rose hasn't played in a basketball game since January 1 right now this minute the New York Knicks. They lead the Cavaliers 97 to 74. It's garbage time. There's about 90 seconds left in the game.

And I guess this means that a break glass in case of emergency. Derrick Rose is actually playing basketball in the New York Knicks are seconds away from going up on the Cavaliers and taking a two one series lead at Madison Square Garden I know the police outside, ready to stop all the. The miscreants from celebrating this this one victory. New York Nick fans. Anyway, it's the JR sport brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We got a lot to do the rest of the show. We're going to take a break when we come back. We're going to talk about NFL players. Well, a few of them a handful of them that have been suspended due to betting. We're going to hear from the Knicks and the Cavs. We'll talk about George Foreman a matter of fact, George Foreman is going to join us later in the show.

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